A Research Project: How Recent Were the Good Ol’ Days?

This is almost impossible to quantify, so let’s ask a more specific question. Now and in the past, how close are Southern Gospel’s leading groups to their own good ol’ days? How close are they to the era that everyone speaks to most fondly?

No such question can be fully objectively quantified. But this is at least closer to a question that has an answer.

So for this research project, here’s how we’ll approach this question. We will determine this year’s leading groups from the 2018 Singing News Fan Award Finalists in several leading categories (Favorite Artist, Traditional Quartet, Mixed Group, Trio).

For comparison, we’ll look at finalists in similar categories from preceding decades:

2018: Favorite Artist, Traditional Quartet, Mixed Group, Trio

2008: Favorite Artist of the Year, Mixed Group, Male Quartet, Trio

1998: Traditional Male Quartet, Mixed Quartet, Trio

[1988: Regrettably, I do not have a top 5 list for 1988]

1978: Favorite Gospel Singing Group, Group of Mr. Gospel Singer, Group of Queen of Gospel Music

We will ask several questions:

At the year of the nomination, how many years has it been since (or until) the group’s classic lineup?

How many years has it been since (or until) the group’s signature song(s)?

What percent of the groups have had their classic lineup within the last five years (or have it in their future)?

What percent of the groups have had their signature song within the last five years or the last ten years (or have yet to record it)?

No one methodology is adequate on its own. But in the aggregate, we can find general trends.

Years since classic lineup and signature song

The raw data for these charts can be found in an appendix at the end.

Years since a group’s classic lineup:

1978: 0.43 years average since classic lineup

1998: 1 year average since classic lineup

2008: 2.53 years average since classic lineup (see note below)

2018: 4.83 years average since classic lineup

Years since a group’s signature song:

1978: 2.1 years untilsignature song

1998: 2.57 years since signature song

2008: 6.57 years since signature song

2018: 14.83 years since most recent signature song

This methodology is the simplest, but it also has some weaknesses. Most notably, it can be heavily biased by one outlier. In 2008, it was an average of 2.53 years since a group’s classic lineup. But this number was heavily biased by the Inspirations’ number; if they alone were removed from the list, then it would have been an average of 0.64 years.

So let’s look at this same data in several other ways.

Groups with five or fewer years since classic lineup

Listed by year:

1978: Groups with five or fewer years since their classic lineup: 6/7

1998: Groups with five or fewer years since their classic lineup: 14/15

2008: Groups with five or fewer years since their classic lineup: 13/15

2018: Groups with five or fewer years since their classic lineup: 11/15

This alone doesn’t tell us much, because Southern Gospel group lineups are often stable for decades. So we turn to signature songs.

Groups with five (or ten) or fewer years since signature song(s)

Groups with five or fewer years since their signature song:

1978: 7/9 groups

1998: 8/14 groups

2008: 9/14 groups

2018: 1/15 groups

Groups with ten or fewer years since their signature song:

1978: 9/9 groups

1998: 10/14 groups

2008: 12/14 groups

2018: 4/15 groups

Conclusion

The good ol’ days for Southern Gospel’s leading groups do seem to be a little farther in the rear view mirror than usual.

But by many metrics, this gap is not as large as a casual observer might have guessed. Why is this?

Perhaps it has to do with the very nature of good ol’ days. They are, by nature, something that must be past, something that must be remembered.

Perhaps it also has to do with the selection criteria. When we think of topics like this, we’re likely to think of our genre’s current legacy groups—The Inspirations, Gold City, Blackwood Brothers, The Kingsmen, and the like. But none of these are among the 2018 nominees.

But if we go back to the eras when these groups were at their peak—for many of these, the late ’70s and early ’80s—there was another generation of legacy groups then who were past their peak—the Statesmen and Blackwood Brothers, and some of the other groups who dominated the stage in the ’50s and ’60s.

So these numbers, which by definition focus on the currently popular groups, paint a different picture than a data set more focused on the length of the tail end of a legacy group’s career.

There is one other interesting aspect. And perhaps this, more than anywhere else, is where the data ultimately points us. There are certainly groups at their peak right now; the Collingsworth Family is the most unanimously acclaimed example to come to mind. Others are rising, with peak years likely future (e.g., 11th Hour, Tribute Quartet, Old Paths). And there’s also a new generation of incredible talent coming up in groups like High Road, the Mylon Hayes Family, the Taylors, and the Erwins.

It is unfair to blame the fans for not giving the new generation a chance. The fans vote among the groups they know. Rather, the industry is relying more heavily than before on its legacy groups. This is almost impossible to quantify, without detailed access to booking venue histories or radio station playlists from decades past. But fans tend to vote for groups they hear regularly, both recorded and in person. And the data suggests that they’re hearing more of the legacy groups than the rising groups. This has always been the case to some extent; it’s just true to a larger extent now.

What kind of future will Southern Gospel have? That depends on whether the future receives enough of a chance to thrive.

Cathedrals – 1981-1999; each of the lineups (except the brief Kurt Young lineup) have substantial portions of the fanbase advocating them as the greatest ever, so I’ll avoid the controversy of picking one

Perrys – 2004-2008 (losoely), with Libbi Perry Stuffle, Tracy Stuffle, Matthew Holt, and Joseph Habedank; with a variety of lead/baritone singers, it’s not entirely clear that one particular lineup was the classic version

Ruppes – ca. 1990-ca. 2002, with Brenda, Valerie, and Kim

Talley Trio/Talleys – 1983-93, with Kirk, Roger, and Debra Talley, or 1995-2011 and 2013-current with Roger, Debra, and Lauren Talley

I wasn’t just picking random groups or personal favorites. The groups featured above are the top 5 finalists for the leading categories in the Singing News Fan Awards in 1978, 1998, 2008, and 2018. Any group not mentioned there is only not mentioned there because they weren’t a top 5 nominee in those years.

This was the best way I could think of to identify the groups most widely recognized as the leading groups in their own day.

I’ve never heard the Collingsworth’s version of How Great Thou Art unless it’s a Kim piano solo?

Since covers of classics are ok (Collingsworths), then the Booth Bros Look For Me At Jesus Feet has been just as significant for them as the other 2 mentioned. They seemed to have abandoned Still Feelin Fine for some reason in favor of Feelin Mighty Fine.

Martins and Jeff and Sheri: Yes, I’d say you’re right on both counts. For Jeff & Sheri in particular, I don’t know the nuances of their discography the way I do for most of the other groups discussed.

Yes, “How Great Thou Art” is a piano solo for Kim. I was reluctant to list it here because I distinctly prefer to list signature songs for groups that are original to that group (see: Booth Brothers). But I couldn’t think of a song that’s been bigger for the Collingsworths than that one was, so with some reluctance, I listed it there. Hopefully the song that, at their retirement, we’ll recognize as their signature song is yet future, which would of course necessitate these numbers being adjusted some decades from now.

I would agree that it is their best song yet. (That, and maybe their cover of “Burdens are Lifted at Calvary.) I happen to think they still have a better song in them; I think the song we’ll remember them by is still in their future.

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FTC Disclaimer

CDs reviewed on this site and elsewhere by our writers are typically provided by artists or their labels for free. This public notice is necessary due to Federal Trade Commission guidelines which falsely assume any product provided for free will automatically receive a favorable review.